Terrorism’s impact on the commodities market

Do you remember where you were during the 9/11 attacks back in 2001? If you were like most of us, you will most likely never forget about the event which changed how much of the world views its security measures (which are still often lacking, despite their various invasions of our privacy). But by way of more than just the threat of more massive attacks, 9/11′s attacks changed many of the ways in which we view the basic parts of our society. For instance, in a world in which any tall building is suddenly far less safe than we previously envisioned, how are we to invest, so as to preserve and grow our retirement nest eggs? A lot of businesses saw their shares drop after 9/11. When people feel threatened, they do tend to want to retreat back into “safe” things such as cash and various types of bonds and commodities. In a pinch, gold and silver investments also tend to seem safe, and thus become the focus of many people’s long term portfolios. This emphasis on keeping what one has, however, has a disturbing tendency to turn people away from a bit of good, simple investing common sense. And all of this really does say nothing of the fact that gold, silver and any other types of commodities are really only good “if society crumbles” if you keep them well defended on your own property. As people become afraid of one more catastrophe, their money tends to flow into something which is tangible – which, as we talked about a moment ago, is just plain silly. At the same time, a lot of commodities can actually see their prices drop dramatically in the immediate after math of a terrorist attack. Perhaps the only thing which can be said uniformly about what people do with their investing decisions after terrorists have struck is that people continue to make bizarre, often ill informed choices on where to put their money.